Heading up an industry that shipped 371.8 million units to retail in Q1 2011, Finnish giant Nokia remains the world's largest mobile manufacturer, despite what's now a sustained drop in its market share.
The latest figures released by IDC suggest the mobile market continues to expand, with shipments for the quarter up 19.8 percent.
But it's the movement between the various major players that offers the most interest.
Top dogs
Indeed, Nokia's continued slide should, in theory, place its leadership in doubt. However, IDC figures suggests its two nearest competitors - Samsung and LG - are also losing share.
Across Q1 2011, Nokia and Samsung saw their respective shares of the market fall year-on-year, despite both parties shipping more units to retail.
Nokia now holds a 29.2 percent share, down 5.5 percent from Q1 2010, having shipped 108.5 million units across the quarter.
Second placed Samsung also saw its share fall by 1.9 percent as shipments rose to 70 million in Q1 2011.
Eyes on Apple
It's Apple, however, that is making the biggest waves.
The firm has seen it's share almost double from 2.8 percent in Q1 2010 to 5 percent in the most recent quarter.
Shipments are also up, hitting 18.7 million units across Q1 2011, up from 8.7 million units in the same period 2010.
"The company posted the highest growth rate of the worldwide leaders," said IDC of Apple's success.
"Apple's results were buoyed by strong sales on Verizon Wireless and additional carrier deals; the company is now on 186 carriers operating in 90 countries. The iPhone once again sold particularly well in developed economic regions of the world, such as North America and Western Europe."
Growing global
Whether Apple is able to hold on to its position as the industry's golden boy in the quarters to come will be interesting to see, if only because of IDC's insistence that markets such as Asia (excluding Japan), the Middle-East and Africa are serving up the most growth.
Feature phones tend to be the dominant force in many of these regions - which itself is one of the major factors behind Nokia's continued run at the top - though IDC claims smartphones will, eventually, make their presence known.
"Feature phones have represented the majority of mobile phone shipments, but still are under tremendous pressure from smartphones," said senior IDC analyst Ramon Llamas.
"Even popular quick-messaging devices - phones with a QWERTY keyboard - once a bright spot within the feature phone market, appear to be losing steam as smartphones gain popularity.
"Still, IDC does not expect feature phones to disappear quickly as there is still strong demand across the globe."
[source: BusinessWire]
Data & Research
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.
Related Articles
as
News
Dec 20th, 2016
China's mobile eSports industry expected to generate $2.6 billion in revenue in 2016
News
Oct 30th, 2014
Smartphone wars: Samsung and Apple lead the way but Xiaomi, Lenovo and LG are catching up
Top Stories
News
May 4th, 2024
PocketGamer.biz Podcast Week in Views E10 - Brawl Stars smashes 2023 revenue, Square Enix’s extraordinary losses, and Haaland signs for Clash of Clans
News
May 3rd, 2024
Week in Views - Apple back themselves bigstyle, Clash bags Haaland and dreams come true at King
News
May 3rd, 2024
Week in Views - Apple back themselves bigstyle, Clash bags Haaland and dreams come true at King
News
May 3rd, 2024
Mobile Movers: All the latest appointments and job moves from around the industry
Events
LA Games Conference 2024 | North America | May 6th |
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Valencia Indie Summit 2024 | Europe | May 16th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
WN Conference Istanbul 2024 | Jun 11th | |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |
Develop: Brighton 2024 | Europe | Jul 9th |